Opinion
December 16, 1998
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Juviler, J.).
Ordered that the judgment under Indictment No. 3775/97 is affirmed; and it is further,
Ordered that the judgment under Indictment No. 12213/96 is modified, on the law, by reducing the sentence imposed thereon from an indeterminate term of 4 to 8 years imprisonment to an indeterminate term of 2 2/3 to 8 years imprisonment; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed.
The Supreme Court providently exercised its discretion in denying the defendant's pro se motion to vacate his pleas of guilty ( see, CPL 220.60; People v. Ellerbe, 237 A.D.2d 299). The defendant's protestations of innocence and of coercion are belied by the record ( see, People v. Brown, 251 A.D.2d 677; People v. Sider, 232 A.D.2d 666; People v. Evans, 204 A.D.2d 346). The defendant's claim that he was coerced by his attorney's warning regarding the strength of the prosecution's case is without merit ( see, People v. Samuel, 208 A.D.2d 776; People v. Anthony, 188 A.D.2d 477).
The defendant committed the crime of sodomy in the first degree under Indictment No. 12213/96 in 1993. Accordingly, as the People concede, the Supreme Court erred in imposing a minimum term of imprisonment which was one-half of the maximum term of that count ( see, Penal Law § 70.02 [former (4)]). The court should have imposed a minimum term of imprisonment of one-third of the maximum term, to run concurrently with the other sentence of an indeterminate term of 4 to 8 years imprisonment.
The defendant's remaining contention is without merit.
Rosenblatt, J. P., O'Brien, Sullivan, Krausman and Florio, JJ., concur.